GetAStreamlinedMusicSharingExperienceWithSoundwave

Soundwave Music Discovery (Free) by Soundwave is a social network for sharing and discovering music. It’s similar to other apps, such as #nwplyng and Wahwah, except this automatically pulls in your music plays from other sources.

I love music — it’s a big part of my life. It’s serenity for me, a separate place for me to focus or relax in. Seriously — who can live their life without music? And the best part is discovering new music, but who wants to just discover music through methods like the radio, where they only play mainstream stuff? We turn to our friends (and maybe family) for new music that we may not have heard of yet, so all of the music social networks make sense. Soundwave is one that goes a little further.

In order to use the app, since this is a micro social network, you will need an account. You can sign up with email, or connect your Facebook account. I think that the app could add Twitter account login as well, since it already integrated with Facebook — some people may not have a Facebook, but will have Twitter — just a suggestion.

When you log in, you will have the chance to invite friends (if you picked Facebook), or follow suggested users (Woz is in there). Then you’ll find yourself on the Activity view.

The Activity screen is probably where you will spend the most time in. It will display all of the activity between you and the users you follow, including: Plays, Ratings, Humdingers, and Shares. If you end up following quite a few people, things can get a little cluttered on this view. Fortunately, Soundwave allows users to filter their feed by tapping on the button in the top right corner. Just select what you want to display, and the app will refresh the feed with only the items you selected. Refresh the feed at any time by performing a pull-to-refresh gesture. You can preview 30 second clips of songs or watch YouTube videos, give songs a like or dislike, and even share it by saving it to Favorites, to your followers, or on Facebook.

A side panel navigational menu can be accessed by sliding right, or tapping on the “hamburger” button. From here, you can switch between the Activity Feed, your profile, Music Map, People, Explore, Notifications, and Feedback.

One of the cool things about Soundwave is the Music Map. Here, you can view your current location on the map (if you gave the app permission to do so), and then you are able to draw on the map to select a portion, and see what music people have played in the area. This is not limited to where you are, either — feel free to go to other spots on the map and make a selection to see what those people are listening to. If there are any plays, you will see a marker on the map, or you can switch it to a list view to see more than one play at a time.

If you’re looking for other ways to find new music, then you can view the Explore option. This will bring up three categories: Most Played, Most Liked, and Most Disliked. Who knows what new hit you’ll find in here?

Now, one of the other big things I am really liking with this app is the fact that you can also link your Spotify or Rdio account and sync your latest plays with Soundwave. This is in addition to anything you are playing with the native Music.app.

Overall, I’m really enjoying Soundwave, though I wish that it was a bit faster with syncing your currently playing songs (it takes a few moments before it shows up in the feed). It’s still a great app for sharing and discovering new tunes from friends, family, and strangers from all over.

If you’ve been looking for a music social network that doesn’t involve manually posting each song you listen to (this is annoying) and streamlines the process of sharing, then I highly recommend checking out Soundwave. Get it for free in the iPhone App Store.